The Best Laptops To Choose For Students: Factor In Cost, Security & Other Key Components

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All around the world, stu­dents at all lev­els of school – from ele­men­tary to uni­ver­si­ty to grad­u­ate school – are using tech­nol­o­gy to help them advance in their aca­d­e­m­ic universe. Per­haps your child is in grade four and doing online learn­ing because of mea­sures in place to con­trol the coro­n­avirus.  Or per­haps they’re leav­ing home for the first time to head to college. Whether one of these describes the stu­dent in your home or your child is in a dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tion, the hard­ware they use will play a big role in how well and how quick­ly they learn. How­ev­er you feel about young chil­dren (in grades three and four, for exam­ple) hav­ing access to tech­nol­o­gy – you may feel they are too young for a cell­phone, for exam­ple – lap­tops are cru­cial pieces of mod­ern learn­ing, and by their ear­ly teens (or soon­er) they will like­ly need to be adept at using computers.

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Here’s a roundup of some of the best options for you to con­sid­er pur­chas­ing for the stu­dent in your home or the young adult get­ting ready to leave the nest and head off to post-sec­ondary school. We’ve fac­tored in cost, secu­ri­ty, user-friend­li­ness and sev­er­al oth­er fea­tures that mat­ter to any par­ent get­ting ready to invest in this impor­tant edu­ca­tion­al equipment. Your first deci­sion is this: what oper­at­ing sys­tem (OS) do you want your child to become com­fort­able with? Your choice, essen­tial­ly, is between Win­dows 10 and Chrome OS, from Google. Both sys­tems come with fea­tures like parental con­trols, access to video games, etc. — but all should be appro­pri­ate to your child’s age. And don’t for­get about buy­ing a water-resis­tant key­board, just in case the juice gets spilled!

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1- Apple Laptops:

Macs, includ­ing Mac­Book and Mac­Book Pro, are prob­a­bly the most famous – and cer­tain­ly one of the most expen­sive – lap­tops on the mar­ket today. Macs have plen­ty of great things, like the ease of use and tight secu­ri­ty; Apple may have some of the most “bul­let­proof” tech­nol­o­gy avail­able today. So if secu­ri­ty is a top pri­or­i­ty, con­sid­er a Mac, no mat­ter what lev­el your child is at in school. How­ev­er, if you are equip­ping a young teenag­er, get them a used Mac or pass down your own, if you have one, and get a new Mac­Book or Mac­Book Pro for yourself. Young kids, in par­tic­u­lar, don’t need a lap­top as sophis­ti­cat­ed as these devices. How­ev­er, if you love Apple prod­ucts and want your chil­dren to grow up Apple savvy, so to speak, save the splurge for yourself. Apple has a “cyber store” with­in the Ama­zon web­site, so any­thing you pur­chase there is just as reli­able as the one you would buy at a bricks and mor­tar Apple store. But be pre­pared to spend approx­i­mate­ly $1,600 (USD) for a new Mac for your­self, or more. See why we sug­gest pass­ing yours on to your child and get­ting a new one yourself? Oh, and just a word here about the new Apple Mac­Book Pro 13-Inch: Apple’s key­boards were noto­ri­ous­ly uncom­fort­able for some users, and this mod­el is the last one of Apple’s lap­tops to get the new, enhanced key­board finally. But oth­er fea­tures of this Apple lap­top are bet­ter, too: there are faster mem­o­ry and even more stor­age than what oth­er mod­els have had in the past.

2- Acer Chromebook 514:

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This lap­top is avail­able on Ama­zon for about $400 (USD) and is a ter­rif­ic option for chil­dren just becom­ing famil­iar with computers. It’s alu­minum back makes it stand up to bangs and drops, and it’s a bud­get-con­science choice that lasts all day when it’s unplugged – per­fect for long days spent in class or for the stu­dent who con­stant­ly for­gets to plug it in to recharge.

3- Asus VivoBook S15:

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This is a ter­rif­ic lap­top that func­tions rather like an on-the-go desk­top. It’s a great deal for the mon­ey — about $850 (USD) on Ama­zon, and per­forms well for high school stu­dents and old­er kids alike. Its slen­der design makes it easy to tote around, and it comes equipped with a long-life bat­tery for those hours kids spend with their com­put­ers unplugged. This 15-inch note­book won raves this past May from PC Mag­a­zine, which praised it as a great, all-around lap­top for not too much mon­ey. High praise, indeed.

4- Lenovo Chromebook Duet:

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This lap­top was anoth­er win­ner with PC Mag­a­zine this year, a stand­out for many rea­sons, includ­ing price. (Many mod­els are avail­able on Ama­zon, start­ing at about $300 USD). This lap­top is per­fect for stu­dents whose com­put­ing needs are not too demand­ing and com­pli­cat­ed. It comes with 128 GB of flash mem­o­ry and essen­tial­ly has three pieces to add up to bare­ly more than two pounds. First, there is the alu­minum alloy tablet; sec­ond is the back pan­el with a kick­stand so it can stand on a desk. And final­ly, it has a key­board with a touch­pad. A minor com­plaint is that the key­board is a lit­tle small, which won’t mat­ter if your child’s hands are small, but they might mat­ter lat­er on as they grow!

5- Dell Inspiron 14 7000 Series:

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There are sev­er­al mod­els in this line of Dell prod­ucts, rang­ing in price from about $830 (USD) to over $1,100 (USD). But it has earned a lot of rave reviews from com­put­er experts for its effi­cien­cy, light­weight body and almost 24/7 bat­tery life. It also gets great reviews for the 14-inch screen and over­all per­for­mance and comes with 8 GB of RAM. Very impres­sive, over­all. (Many in the series are avail­able on Amazon.)

Wrapping Up

These sug­ges­tions will get you start­ed as you begin inves­ti­gat­ing what lap­top is the right pick this year for the stu­dent in your home or the stu­dent who’s head­ing out the door and off to college. Many fac­tors con­tribute to the deci­sion, includ­ing, most impor­tant­ly, how old your child is and the lev­el of sophis­ti­ca­tion and tech-agili­ty they have. Choose a device that will be rel­e­vant and use­ful to them for at least the next few years. Secu­ri­ty is impor­tant too, nat­u­ral­ly, and any lap­top for a child, if they are in ele­men­tary or even ear­ly high school, should have sol­id parental con­trols. Hence, you know exact­ly what your child is access­ing – and be able to pre­vent them from access­ing cer­tain web­sites that are not appro­pri­ate for their young eyes.

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The time will come soon enough when you won’t be able to con­trol what your child sees or access­es on the Inter­net, and we know that’s a scary thought! But for now, you can and should con­trol the kind of lap­top they get and how they use it. It is meant to be an edu­ca­tion­al tool, a way for them to engage with learn­ing that uses mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy. It’s not for games – at least not entirely! Sit down and talk with them about their school­work, how their teach­ers expect them to use their lap­tops both inside the class­room and out­side, and go from there. Ask them what they’d like their lap­top to do, in addi­tion to edu­ca­tion­al things – do they want to use it to stay con­nect­ed with friends and fam­i­ly or to help with graph­ic design? The more you learn about the kind of lap­top your child wants to own, the more you’ll learn about them! And that’s the goal of all good par­ents, for a hap­py and suc­cess­ful par­ent­ing journey 🙂